As we get closer to the end of this series of running highlights over my lifetime – that have included a few life stories as well, it gets easier, yet at the same time more difficult to tell the stories. I know/remember things better, but some of the memories are still too fresh for me to have…processed everything through this brain of mine or include … Continue reading 2015 – 2018 – Life is Good
During this time, I went down the road less traveled and yes, it made all the difference. Yeah, this one is a bit longer than the others, but a LOT happened. This post will be about: 2011 to 2015 – Life After Teaching A huge part of my recovery from knee surgery back in May 2011, was that I tendered my resignation as a Special … Continue reading 2011 to 2015 – Life After Teaching
January 2008 through May 2011 were the toughest years of my running life, I had so many major injuries that significantly reduced the number of days that I ran during these years. A quick run-down of the major ones: • 1/4/08 – Fell off the Ladder while shoveling the garage roof • 2/4/09 – Massive Migraine initially thought to be a stroke or Bell’s Palsy … Continue reading 2008-2011 Too Damn Many Injuries
The new Millennium found my life in complete upheaval and then renewal. A lot went on before I met TheWife in October 2000, went through our courtship, moving in and getting married in 2002. 2000 was the year that I re-kindled my love of running. It did help that the then-future TheWife was a runner and being runners played such a major role in our … Continue reading 2000-2007 – A New Beginning
Snow Shoeing with Dad – I don’t have any running pics from this time.
This post will be from 1988 to September 2000. These are the toughest years for me to write about. A lot happened in my life professionally and personally that well…looking back were years that I made a lot of mistakes. Twelve years which I consider the “lost” years of my running life. I didn’t race at all and while I ran quite a bit during this time, I didn’t run consistently and it was more spits, spurts, and far too often more than a little bit of indifference.
However, even though I didn’t run consistently or race much, I still would run around 200 days a year.
For many reasons and how painful some of the memories are for me during this period, I have decided to make this post my most generic and will just skim through most everything and then move on.
The time in my running life, where I ran well, met some great runners, and had delusions of grandeur.
CGAS Cape Cod 10K – 1985 //
1985 & 1986 were my personal glory days when it comes to my running career. Starting in April ’85 until September ’86, I think I ran a different road race at least twice a month and traveled to a couple of out of state races, specifically to run them. Something that I had never done before.
During this time my race pace was usually between 5:40 and 6:20 pace, which really wasn’t that fast for the time period, but faster than I had ever run before or since. Hell every once in a while I would break that magical 6:00 minute pace barrier for an entire race and I thought that I could do even better, with a little different training.
Those thoughts of grandeur that runners get from time-to-time, which were also wonderfully dashed during this time period when I got to run with some really good runners for a while.
We moved to the New London/Groton, CT area in October 1984 and I found a wonderful running community at the Coast Guard’s Research & Development Center that was located over on Avery Point (yeah, the college). There were about 10-15 people who would run almost every day at lunchtime, so it was very seldom that I would run by myself unless I wanted to. It seemed like there was always someone to run with.
At first, I had a hard time keeping up with most of them, but I got better with the daily runs. When they saw that I was going to train with them in all kinds of weather, they began to accept me into their running circle (this was before Google, Facebook, and all the running apps).
Continue reading “1984-1988 New London & Meeting Some Greats”
The one race that has and continues to haunt me. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that it always will. The 1983 Marine Corps Marathon was a turning point in my running and really not a good one. I allowed it to change my perceptions of what running was and probably still is. As a result of this one run, I believe several things in my … Continue reading 1983 Marine Corp Marathon Memories
This post will be about the years 1982 to 1984 and I was living in the:
Washington, D.C. Metro Area
I got assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. during the Summer of ’82 and lived in Alexandria over at the Mt. Vernon Square Apartment Complex. Which had a path leading to the back road and up this big hill and then about a mile away was the Mt. Vernon Bike Trail. I ran on the bike trail a lot while we lived in Alexandria. It was a lot safer than running on the roads around Rt. 1.
Although, as I added mileage to my running I did get over around Fort Belvoir and the Old Town section of Alexandria. Continue reading “1982 to 1984 Running in Washington, DC”
This post will be about the years: 1979 to 1982 — St. Ignace, Michigan Over my summer leave, I ran maybe 5 times, I was too busy getting out having way too much fun and sun before my next duty station – it was the graduation summer that I never had. Transitioning back into the Coast Guard was going to be tough or was it? … Continue reading 1979 to 1982 – Running in St. Ignace
This post will be about the years: 1977 to May 1979 – Cape Cod My next place to run was Cape Cod Air Station and there I started running again pretty regularly. I was running in Brooks (I think the model was the Vantage), only this time I started to run longer distances and found that I while I wasn’t all that great at it, … Continue reading 1977 to 1979 – Cape Cod and Bat Out of Hell
This post will be about the years: 1975 to 1977 onboard the UCGC SPAR & ACACIA & MESQUITE and back to the SPAR, but all three were homeported in South Portland, Maine during my time aboard them. They were all part of the 180 FRAM Project and we got stuck with all the swaps or should I say cross decking. The SPAR is now an … Continue reading 1975-1977 Running While On the Buoy Tenders
This post will be about the years June 1975 to August 1975: I graduated from High School on June 11th and on June 23rd I was winging my way to Cape May, NJ for Coast Guard Boot Camp with Bobby M. and another guy from Indian Island (who I don’t remember seeing again after the first week or so). I was all of 17 years … Continue reading Running and Boot Camp – 1975
